1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to coding, and more particularly to a configurable coding system and method of multiple error correcting codes (ECCs) for a memory device or devices.
2. Description of Related Art
The encoder/decoder or codec usually accompanies a non-volatile memory device such as a flash memory, which is error-prone, in order to correct error occurred during the memory access. The flash memory has evolved into many different types with varieties of information lengths and parity lengths. In some applications, there is a need for a flash controller to support different types of flash memory in the same chip, such that the data correctness may be assured no matter what type of flash is involved. In other words, the codec has to be configurable for multiple error correcting codes (ECCs).
However, multiple ECCs leads to multiple parameters for initializing the codec, while some parameters may be quite large in size. This may enlarge the circuit area of the codec or the flash controller. Further, storing the parameters in the codec or the controller may make the circuit design inflexible.
For the reason that conventional encoder/decoder could not effectively and economically provide multiple ECCs for the flash memory, a need has arisen to propose a novel coding system and method for relieving the codec of the burden of storing a large amount of parameters without incurring substantive cost.